FM Says No Cabinet Session without Appointments as Berri Urges Postponement to September
Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called for postponing debate over the thorny issue of the security and military appointments to September, as Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Free Patriotic Movement will not attend any cabinet session that does not have the file on the top of its agenda.
“During his meeting with Minister Bassil, Speaker Berri suggested postponing the security appointments to September, as Bassil insisted on the FPM's stance regarding the issue of appointments,” Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported after talks in Ain el-Tineh.
Bassil, however, underlined that “there will be no cabinet session without the file of appointments.”
“We are the ones who 'represent the president' and we're partners in the cabinet and the agendas of its sessions cannot be prepared without taking our opinion into account,” the minister emphasized.
“Let the prime minister call a session and we will attend and debate, but we have a clear demand: the file of appointments must remain on the top of the agenda,” he added.
On Tuesday, An Nahar newspaper reported that Prime Minister Tammam Salam was setting the agenda of a cabinet session that he intends to chair next week following an agreement with Berri.
The cabinet has been paralyzed since early June when Salam suspended the sessions over a dispute on the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials.
Free Patriotic Movement ministers have warned they would boycott any session whose agenda is not topped by the appointments.
The parliament has also been paralyzed over a dispute between the rival MPs on the presidential elections.
Their rivalry has left Baabda Palace vacant since the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's term in May last year.
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